johnson



C. W. JOHNSON.

CULLING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 13. 1920.

1,392,505., Patented 0013. 4,1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

Jfiuentor Charles W. Jail 1 a WW flZZf /S.

C. W. JOHNSON.

CULLING MACHINE.

APPLICATION man SEPT. 13. I920.

Patented Oct. 4, 192L 2 $HEET$-SHEET 2.

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1700670605 Charles Z1 Job/won,

7 1 WW w sq UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES W. JOHNSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO WM. WRIGLEY JR.COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF VIRGINIA.

CULLING-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 4, 1921.

Application filed September 13, 1920. Serial No. 409,978.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES W. JOHN- SON, a citizen of the UnitedStates, and a.

resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Cullingof this characterare ordinarily wrapped by mechanical means, whereby the articles areintroduced in bulk into a feed hopper and from thence are advancedthrough successive stages in which the articles are uniformly arrangedin package form and the wrappers applied and sealed. Inasmuch as thewrapping mechanism is delicate in construction, it is necessary that allthe articles handled'shall be of a uniform shape in order to insure theproper operation of the parts, and the uninterrupted passage of thearticles therethrough.

The object of the presentinvention is therefore to provide a devicethrough which the articlesmay be passed before they are finallyintroduced into the wrapping machine, this device known as a cullingmachine-serving to separate the imperfect articles from the masscontinuously fed thereto. The features of theinvention pertainespecially to the novel features of construction of the machinewherebylarge quantities may be passed through the machine and the imperfectarticles sorted from the mass in an efiicient and dependable manner. Thenovel features hereinabove suggested are fully described in connectionwith the accompanying drawings, wherein- "Figure 1 is. a view insideelevation of the machine,

Fig. 2 isa top plan View of the machine,

Fig. 3 is a view in vertical section taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged detailed view in cross section, taken on line 4.4: of Fig. 3.

' Considering first the general features of construction of the machine,the same comprises a frame 1 adapted to rest on a suitable pedestal orother support, an upwardly openin -hopper 2 into which the articles areintroduced, a horizontal reciprocating culling frame or agitator 3, aninclined chute 4 immediately below the agitator 3, and an agitatorcleaning member 5 located beyond the agitator. The course of thearticles through the machine is manifestly from the hopper to theagitator where the perfect articles pass directly through the same tothe discharge chute 4, whereas the imperfect articles are held by theagitator and are periodically removed by revolving said agitator overand downwardly upon the cleaning device 5, thus freeing said imperfectarticles from the agitator and permitting their disposal into a suitablereceptacle.

The frame 1 comprises the two side frame members 6-6 having verticallegs 7-7 at their ends. At one end of the frame is provided a horizontalsupporting member 8 upon which is slidably mounted. vertical guideplates 9 -9 which in turn support the hopper 2, said hopper being of theusual shape converging from the large entrance opening to acomparatively small discharge opening 10 at its lower end. At the lowerend of the hopper and immediately adjacent to the discharge opening 10is mounted a rotative brush 11 journaled at. its ends in the verticalguide plates 9--9, and actuated by mechanism hereinafter to bedescribed. The discharge opening 10 is preferably in a vertical frontwall 12 of the hopper, and immediately above the rotary brush 11, saiddischargeopening facing. toward the agitator 3 and located immediatelyabove the same. A sliding door or closure 13 is employed to close thedischarge opening when it is desired to stop the feeding of the articlesfrom the hopper.

The culling frame or agitator 3 so called by reason of its action, islocated, as before suggested, immediately beyond the lower end of thehopper and slightly below the level of the discharge opening thereof.The

agitator consists of a rectangular frame made up of side plates let-14:connected together by transverse bars 1515. EX- tendingparallel with theside frame members1 l1 1 and connected at their ends to thetransversebars 15-15, is a series of knife like bars 16, said bars beingof .uniform thickness and are spaced apart a distance predetermined bythe thickness of the articles to be sorted. As a. preferableconstruction, these bars are slightly sharpened along their upper edges,as is shown in Fig. 4c (althoughthe bars are shown in reversed positionin said figure). The agitator frame is. not mounted directly upon themachine frame, but upon an oscillating frame journaledibetweenthe saidframe members 66 ofthemachine frame. The oscillating frame clearly shownin Figs. '1 and 3 consists of parts as follows:

Pairs of vertical l'evers 1717 are pivoted intermediate their ends uponjournal rods 18-18"ext'ending between the said plates 6-6; These pairsoflevers are maintained in parallel relation, and are connected togethe'rat their lower ends by a pair of horizontal: links 19 19. The agitator.frame is supporte'dupon and connected to the up per ends of the levers17-17 by means of journalgbear'ings; The agitator frame is permanentlyand pivotally connected to the.

forward pair of levers 171'7,' whereas-the rear end; that is to say, theend adjacent to the hopper, is pivotally connected to the adjacent pairof levers 17 by means of integral journal pins 21 which are adapted torest within endwise opening bearing notches 22 formed at the upper endsof the levers' One of the journal pins 21 is extended in, the form of ahandle 23, as shown in Fig. 2. By reason of this construction, theentire agitator-frame may be revolved from its horizontal position uponthe oscillating frame through an angle slightly greater than 180 degreestoa position in contact with the agitator cleaning frame 5, as shown inFig. 8. The sides of the agitator' frame are increased in height by theprovisionoftransversely slidable extension plates 24: whichare securedto the side plates ,14 through' the medium of laterally projecting pins25-25 which engage curvilinear slots '2 124 in the plates 24:, said pinsbeing providedwith an arrangement of tension washers 26 asshown in Fig.4, forthepurpose of yieldingly holding the extensionplates 24"a'gainstthe side plates 14 of the agitator frame. Mounting the exj tensionplates inthe manner described permits them to slide transversely as theagitator is revolved from one position tozthe other, as is fclearlyshown by" comparing Figs. 1and3.. i

' Referring'now' to themechanism for driving themoving parts, a stubshaft .28 is journaled upon one of the side frame members 6, and is inaxial alinement with the journal rod 18 upon which the rcarmost pair oflevers 1717 are mounted. At the extreme end of the'stub shaft 28 (Fig.2) is mounted a small belt pulley 29 by means of which power isdelivered to the shaft 28 by means of a belt connected motor or otherprime mover. Mounted upon the stub shaft 28 is a sprocket wheel 30,carrying a sprocket chain 31 which meshes with a slightly largersprocket wheel 82 mounted upon the shaft 33 of the rotary brush 11. Inthis manner the brush is rotated at the desired speed, and preferably ina clockwise direction so as to facilitate the dis charge of the articlesfrom the hopper into the reciprocating agitator frame 3. Mounted' uponthe stub shaft 28 immediately behind the sprocket pinion 30 is a gearwheel 34 meshing with another gear wheel 35 of like diameter, which inturn is fixed to a' shaft 36 journaled in the side frame members 66-ashort distance below and to the left of'the said shaft 28. The shaft 36is provided intermediate its ends" with a crank 37 (Fig. 3) to which isapplied a short connecting rod 38 extending horizontally and engaging arod 39 extending transversely between and connecting the lower ends ofthe adjacent pair of lovers 17. Mani'fcstly the rota'tivemovementtransmitted from the stubshaft 28 to the crank shaft 36 throughthe medium of the gear wheels 34; and 35 is transformed by means of thecrank 37 and connecting rod 38 into a reciprocating movement which istransmitted to the levers 17-17 in the form of a rocking motion andfinally to the agitator in the form of a reciprorating movement in ahorizontal plane.

Ordinarily the hopper would he filled to capacity and the actuatingmechanism having been set in motion, the articles are permitted' to passfrom the hopper onto the surface of the agitator, the discharge of thearticles being promoted by the rotativc brush 11. The articles on comingin contact with the surface of the agitator soon find their way betweenthe blades 16, those articles which are of uniform thickness and 7blades 40, not unlike the blades of the agitator itself, these bladesbeing mounted edgewise and in inclined position upon a portion 41 of themachine frame 1 which supports the transverse bars 4242 engaging thelower edges of the blades 40. These blades are located in apredetermined relation to the bars of the agitator frame; namely, inalinement with the spaces separating said agitator blades, as clearlyshown in Figs. 3 and 4. The agitator frame 3 is capable of beingrevolved from its normal operative position in a direction upwardly andaway from the hopper, over and downwardly upon the blades 40 of thecleaning device, each of the stationary cleaning blades 40 passingbetween the blade 16 of the agitator frame, thus forcing the articleslodged between the latter upwardly, and to what is now the bottomsurface of the agitator frame, in the manner clearly shown in Fig. 4.The articles thus released from the agitator frame are free to rolldownwardly and into any suitable receptacle placed immediately below thelower end of the agitator frame. A chute or trough 43 serves to catchany of the articles which may be released from the cleaning frame oragitator in the act of revolving the latter. The handle 23 with whichthe agitator frame is provided is used by the operator in revolving theagitator frame.

The devices herein described and illus trated provide a means forreadily and efficiently sorting or culling small articles of thecharacter described, and the features embodying the invention arespecifically set forth in the appended claims.

I claim as my invention 1. In a device of the character described, thecombination of a culling frame comprising a series of bars spaced aparta predetermined distance, means for agitating said frame, and a seriesof fixed bars adapted to pass between the bars of said culling frame bythe bodily movement of the latter from operative position.

acting to remove the articles lodged in said culling frame.

3. In a device of the character described, the combination of areciprocating culling frame comprising a series of bars spaced apart apredetermined distance and mounted for bodily rotative movement into andout of operative position, and a cleaning frame mounted in the path ofbodily rotative movement of said culling frame and comp-rising a seriesof bars adapted to pass between the bars of the said culling frame.

i. In a device of the character described, the combination of asupporting frame, a culling frame pivotally mounted on said supportingframe comprising a series of parallel bars spaced apart a predetermineddistance, a hopper mounted above said culling frame, a chute beneathsaidculling frame, means for agitating said culling frame, and a fixedframe mounted on said supporting frame, and comprising complementaryparallel bars adapted to remove the articles lodged between the bars ofsaid culling frame when the latter is swung bodily into contacttherewith.

5. In a device of the character described, the combination of a mainframe, a culling frame mounted on said main frame, and

adapted to be swung into and out of operative position, means foragitating said culling frame, and a cleaning frame mounted on said mainframe and adapted to remove the articles therefrom when said cullingframe is swung into contact therewith.

In witness whereof I hereunto subscribe my name this 8th day ofSeptember, A. D. 1920.

CHARLES W. JOHNSON.

